The regency of the Golden Empire provided a means through which the government of the Empire, an absolute monarchy, might be maintained if the Sovereign were to be absent from the Empire or incapacitated (but not dead). The law was written specifically to cover physical disability, but not mental defect. As such, it allowed continuation of government if the Sovereign was rendered unconscious or comatose, but gave no mechanism for any agency in the government to declare the Sovereign unfit to reign against her will.